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Theodore Schwan, Brigadier-General U.S. Volunteers. 



FROM YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 



FROM YAUCO 
TO LAS MARIAS 



Being a story of the recent campaign in Western 
Puerto Rico by the Independent Regular Brigade, 
under command of Brigadier-General Schwan: 



KARL STEPHEN HERRMANN 

Late Private Light Battery 
*'Di' Jth U. S. Artillery 




jf^iMmetveRnATgp 



BOSTON 

Richard G. Badger ^ Co. 
1900 



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Copyright 1899 
By Richard G. Badger (sf Co. 



All Rights Reserved 



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•«CON0 COPY. 



4373: 

TWO COPIES RECEIVED. 



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(A\N^ '1^ 5^. '9^ '^ . 



TO 

ROBERT SMITH COBB 

MY BROTHER LORD IN CERTAIN ISLES OF FRIENDSHIP 
AND OWNER OF PRECIOUS CARGO IN MY SHIP OF DREAMS 



4 

I 



CONTENTS 

Introduction "^8^ ^3 

CHAPTER I 

The Independent Regular Brigade . . . Page 1 7 

Place of meeting — Forces comprised by the command — 
Why we were not like the Volunteers — Characteristics 
of the professional soldier — Sketches of the more impor- 
tant officers — What we were ordered to do. 

CHAPTER II 

The First Day's March Page 24 

Disposition of our column — The road to Sabana Grande 

The infantrymen's burden — Wayside hospitality — 

Hard tack and repartee — Into camp and under blankets 
Arrival of Macomb's troop — A smoke-talk. 

CHAPTER III 

The People of Puerto Rico Page 3 1 

Their attitude toward the invading Americans — The 
proclamation of General Miles— Justice and the private 
soldier — Depravity of the native masses — Men and 
women of the better class— Local attributes of life — 
A hint to the weary. 

CHAPTER IV 

The Second Day Begins Page 39 

We march to San German — Removal of the sick from 
the ambulances — An approaching Spanish force — Our 

7 



8 CONTENTS 

scouts and their leader — Concerning Senor Fijardo — 
Visible effects of imminent battle — Something about the 
town of San German. 

CHAPTER V 

The Engagement at Hormigueros . . . Page 47 

Topography of the battlefield — Macomb's cavalry fired 
into by Spanish skirmishers — Our advance-guard comes 
into contact with the foe — General Schwan reaches the 
firing line — The main body arrives and joins in the fray 
— Subsequent manoeuvres of our column — The Spanish 
retreat — A computation of losses. 



CHAPTER VI 

The Second Day Ends Page 58 

A personal resume of the fight — Lack of melodramatic 
accompaniments — A lost chance of glory — Another 
neglected opportunity — A glimpse of the flag — Once 
more into camp. 

CHAPTER VII 

The Occupation of Mayaguez .... Page 67 

We enter the city in triumph — An enthusiastic reception 
— A pretty girl and the star-spangled banner — Other 
memorable incidents — Our rags and tatters — A descrip- 
tion of Mayaguez — We pitch our tents in a swamp — 
The First Kentucky Volunteers. 



CHAPTER VIII 

The Engagement at Las Marias .... Page 7 5 

Difficulties encountered in locating the retreating enemy 
— Final determination upon pursuit — Lieutenant-Colonel 
Burke sets forth — Discovery of Spanish troops near Las 
Marias — A one-sided encounter — Unwelcome notifica- 
tion of truce — The rest of the brigade comes up — Feed- 
ing the prisoners — Our disappointment. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER IX 
The Territory Won Page 84 

General Schwan returns to Mayaguez — Business and 
pleasure — A custom we abolished — Extent of the dis- 
trict captured by our brigade — Aguadilla — Facilities for 
transportation — Labor and the laborer — The cost of 
living — Rents and real estate — Skilled workmen — A 
word about investments. 



CHAPTER X 
The End of the Campaign Page 93 

Arrival of the mail-steamer — The soldier-boy and his 
letters — The greater part of the brigade is quartered in 
Mayaguez — Agriculture in Puerto Rico — Material re- 
sult of our campaign — A farewell order — General 
Schwan departs for the United States. 

A Brief Sketch of the Life of Brigadier-General 

Schwan Page loi 

Appendix Page 103 



\ 



THE ILLUSTRATIONS 

Theodore Schwan, Brigadier-General U.S. 

Volunteers Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

Statue of Columbus, Mayaguez 1 8 

American Cavalry entering Mayaguez on the nth of 

August 10 

The Public Fountain in Aguadilla, a Favorite Ren- 
dezvous for Runaway Lovers 22 

Plaza Principal, Mayaguez. Town Hall in Back- 
ground 24 

Spanish Prisoners who were brought from Las Marias 

to Mayaguez 26 

Plaza Principal, Mayaguez. A Public Celebration of 
the New Flag's Advent, under the Auspices of 
the Local School-teachers and their Pupils . . 28 

The Plaza of San German on Market-day .... 30 

Lower Quarter of Mayaguez 32 

A Mid-section of the Calle Mendez-Vigo, Mayaguez 34 
Positions occupied by Spanish Soldiers in the Skirmish 

at Hormigueros 36 

Railroad from Mayaguez to Aguadilla 38 

The Theatre, Mayaguez 40 

Custom-house at Mayaguez occupied by General 

Schwan as Brigade Headquarters 42 

Road from Mayaguez to Afiasco 44 

Lower End of the Calle de Mendez-Vigo, Mayaguez 46 

Guenar Bridge, Mayaguez 48 

Upper End of the Calle Mendez-Vigo, Mayaguez . 50 

The Town of Sabana Grande 52 

XI 



12 THE ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING PAGE 

Witch River, near Cabo Rojo 54 

American Camp at Mayaguez 56 

Plaza Mercado, Mayaguez 58 

Mouth of the Mayaguez River 60 

A Bit of Yauco 62 

Wooden Dock at Mayaguez. In the Offing can be 

seen the German Man-of-war <*Geier" ... 64 

•'Eleventh of August" Street 66 

The Officers of the Alphonso XIII Regiment of Caza- 
dores, taken a few days before the Fight with 

the American Troops at Hormigueros ... 68 

The Military Hospital, Mayaguez 70 

Part of the Village of Maricao 7Z 

Infantry Barracks, Mayaguez 74 

The Rosario River, near Hormigueros 76 

A Street in San German 78 

Tobacco Plantation (cutting leaves), Mayaguez . . 80 

The Plaza Principal in Mayaguez looking toward 

the Church 82 

A Ruined Church along our Line of March ... 84 

A Puerto Rican Laundry 84 

Watering the Artillery Horses at Yauco .... 86 

A Native Bull-team 86 

On the Road to Lares 88 

The Best Outfit in our Wagon Train 88 

" Promenade of the Fleas" in Yauco 90 

When only One Man gets a Letter 90 

The ** Weary Travellers' Spring," near Aiiasco . . 92 

A Crude Sugar Mill near Las Marias 92 

A very Popular Spot 94 

Two Knights and a Pawn 94 



INTRODUCTION 

I HAVE ventured to set down in this 
place the following bald and brief 
items of our recent history, not be- 
cause I doubt an already existing common 
knowledge of their substance, but simply 
because they serve to illuminate and give 
finish to the succeeding narrative. 

Major-General Miles sailed from Guan- 
tanamo, Cuba, on the 2ist of July, 1898; 
and landed at Guanica, Puerto Rico, on the 
25th of the same month. The troops sail- 
ing with him numbered 3,554 officers and 
men, mainly composed of volunteers from 
Massachusetts, Illinois, and the District of 
Columbia, with a complement of regulars in 
five batteries of light artillery, thirty-four 
privates from the battalion of engineers, and 
detachments of recruits, signal, and hospital 
corps. 

13 



14 INTRODUCTION 

On August 1st he was re-enforced by Gen- 
eral Schwan's brigade of the Fourth Army 
Corps and part of General Wilson*s division 
of the First Corps, raising his numerical 
strength to 9,641 officers and men. The 
Spanish forces in Puerto Rico at that time 
numbered some 18,000, about evenly 
divided between regulars and volunteers, and 
scattered advantageously over 3,700 square 
miles of territory. By the end of August 
the American strength had nearly doubled. 

In the brief campaign that followed, a 
large part of the island was captured by the 
United States forces, and the positions of all 
the Spanish garrisons, except that at San 
Juan, were made untenable. There were al- 
together six engagements, — at Guanica Road, 
Guayamo (2), Coamo, Hormigueros, Aibo- 
nito, and Las Marias, — with a total loss to 
the Spaniards of about 450 killed and 
wounded, while the American casualties of 
the same nature amounted to 43. 

General Miles, in his scheme of opera- 
tions, intended that three columns of our 
troops — each composed of infantry, cavalry. 



INTRODUCTION 15 

artillery, and their adjuncts — should march 
through the eastern, western, and central 
parts of the island, respectively, diverging at 
Ponce and coalescing before San Juan. The 
entire success of this plan was prevented 
only by the arrival of the order to suspend 
hostilities, on the 13 th- of August. 

T he column marching eas t — known as 
the First Division, First Army Corps — was 
commanded by Major-General James H. 
Wilson, and took part in three engagements. 
The column sent through the i nterio r — 
known as the Provisional Division — was 
commanded by Brigadier-General Guy V. 
Henry, and met no opposition of moment. 

The thirj. rnhimn, called the In depende nt 
Re gular Brigad e, and directed to proceed 
through the western section of the island, 
was commanded by Brigadier-General Theo- 
dore Schwan, and had two engagements with 
the Alphonso XIII Regiment of Cazadores. 

It is the story of General Schwan's cam- 
paign that I am about to relate. 



From Yauco to Las Marias 

CHAPTER I 

• The Independent Regular Brigade 

Place of meeting — Forces comprised by the command 
— Why we were not like the Volunteers — Charac- 
teristics of the professional soldier — Sketches of the 
more important officers — What we were ordered to do, 

YAUCO, the place selected by General 
Miles as a rendezvous for the troops 
of the Independent Regular Brigade, 
is a town of about 15,000 inhabitants, and 
some six miles distant from Guanica. It 
is connected both by rail and wagon-road 
with Ponce, the largest city on the island, 
and is noted for its Spanish proclivities, fine 
climate, excellent running water, and setting 
of mountains — luxuriantly green through- 
put the year. 

17 



1 8 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

Here were assembled on the evening of 
Aug. 8, 1898, all the forces assigned to Gen- 
eral Schwan, with the exception of Troop 
"A," Fifth Cavalry, which did not appear 
until some thirty hours later. The com- 
mand was composed of the Eleventh In- 
fantry, Light Battery " D " of the Fifth 
Artillery, Light Battery " C " of the Third 
Artillery, and the troop of cavalry already 
mentioned, — all regulars, and as resolute and 
picturesque a set of men as ever wore the 

uniform of war. 

• • ■ ' • • • • 

Because we had no Volunteers with us, we 
were not granted even one little word-spat- 
tering newspaper scribe, and so relinquished 
at the outset any fugitive hopes of glory that 
otherwise might have been entertained. We 
were out for business, — hard marching, hard 
living, hard fighting, — and the opening vista 
was fringed with gore. We were none of us 
the darlings of any particular State, nor the 
precious offspring of a peripatetic statesman 
with a practised pull. We were at no time 
decimated by disease through ignorant or in- 









Statue of Columbus, Mayaguez. 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 19 

subordinate disregard of the primary princi- 
ples of hygiene. We didn't write long wail- 
ing letters home because we were obliged to 
sleep on the damp ground, and had neither 
hot rolls, chocolate, nor marmalade for break- 
fast. We were ragged, hungry, tough, and 
faithful. In other words, we were regular 
army men, and, most distinctly, not Volun- 
teers. 

There is a personality peculiar to the pro- 
fessional soldier, even though he be but a 
half-fledged recruit, that defies analysis and 
baffles description. He is of course built 
from the same clay as his brother of the 
Volunteers; but the latter is a tin god, and 
the former is a devil. Yet the difference 
does not spring from anything more funda- 
mental than environment, and therein lies the 
solace of the other fellow. Putting aside all 
odious comparisons and limiting myself to a 
view of the regular army man as I know him, 
I can simply say that in the eight months 
during which I underwent in his company 
hard knocks and privations without number 
I could not have found a more truly satis- 



20 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

factory comrade and friend. He doesn't, 
on the average, know much about books; 
nor did he ever hear of the Etruscan In- 
scriptions or the Pyramidal PoHcy of the 
Ancient Egyptians. He takes a grim de- 
light in smashing the English language into 
microscopic atoms at a single blow. He is 
more fond of women, horses, and prize- 
fighting than is good for him. He will steal 
when he is hungry, lie to save his skin, 
curse most terribly on trifling provocation, 
and spend, to his last sou markee, his hard- 
won wage on adulterated drink. 

** He's a devil an' a ostrich 
an' a orphan-child in one." 

But he will stand his ground in action 
while there is ground to stand on ; he will 
throw his life away at a moment's notice for 
the flag, or a chosen comrade, or a worthless 
girl ; he will march and starve and thirst 
world without end if he has a leader who 
holds his confidence ; and he is, on the whole, 
a rather fine specimen of the true American 
— being usually Irish or German. 



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YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 21 

Our brigade commander, General Theo- 
dore Schwan — silent, upright, tall, and 
spare — was regarded with affection and 
respect by every one who came into personal 
contact with him, officer and man alike. 
He was shrewd, clever, and distinguished, 
but never too busy or elevated to listen to 
the humblest soldier from the ranks, and 
from first to last a gentleman. Of his staff 
it is the highest praise to say that they were 
in every way worthy of their chief. Bluff 
Captain Davison, gruff Captain Hutcheson, 
studious Major Root, saturnine Major 
Egan, wounded Lieutenant Byron, patient 
Lieutenant Poore, dashing Captain Elkinsj 
and courteous Lieutenant Summerlin, I 
salute you all in the most military manner 
of the soldier dismounted ! You were my 
friends in need, you lent me money, you 
gave me fatherly counsel and passes of free- 
dom to the shimmering tropic dawn — and 
I shall not forget. 

At the head of the Eleventh Infantry was 
Colonel I. D. DeRussy, who, with his min- 
isterial drawl and dry wit, was a sharp 



22 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

contrast to his blunt, impetuous, and fiery 
second in command, Lieutenant-Colonel 
Burke. But, so far as I am aware, per- 
petual harmony reigned between them ; and 
both were beloved by their men. The bat- 
talion of artillery was commanded by Cap- 
tain Frank Thorp of Light Battery " D," 
my own outfit. He was best known in the 
ranks as " Side-wheeler," from a peculiarity 
of gait, and, though well on in years, was 
at all times gallant, courageous, and capable. 
A stiff disciplinarian, he kept his guard- 
house well filled from week to week ; but 
he was as quick to reward as punish, when 
warranted by circumstances. It is worthy 
of note that although he took each day 
enough medicine to lay an ordinary man 
on his back, or in an early grave, yet he was 
well and fit from start to finish. 

Captain Macomb of the Fifth Cavalry is 
not an easy man to describe in cold ink. 
Handsome, stalwart, and grave; black- 
haired, black-eyed, a scarf of yellow knotted 
at his throat, — he was Custer without the 
vanity or Lancelot devoid a Guinevere. 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 23 

When he clattered through the many quaint 
little towns abutting on our line of march, 
he was followed by a billow of sighs from 
behind the half-closed lattices, though I 
dare say he knew nothing about it ; for 
indeed he was no heart-breaker, but a true 
soldier. I recommend him to either Rud- 
yard Kipling or Richard Harding Davis. 

Said General Miles, in a letter of instruc- 
tion to General Schwan under date of Au- 
gust 6, 1898 : — 

" You will drive out or capture all Spanish 
troops in the western portion of Puerto Rico. 
You will take all necessary precautions and 
exercise great care against being surprised or 
ambushed by the enemy, and will make the 
movement as rapidly as possible, at the 
same time exercising your best judgment in 
the care of your command, to accomplish 
the object of your expedition." 

And this programme we were now ready 
to carry out. 



CHAPTER II 
The First Day's March 

Disposition of our column — The road to Sabana 
Grande — The infantrymen s burden — Wayside hos- 
pitality — Hard tack and repartee — Into camp and 
under blankets — Arrival of Macomh^s troop — A 
smoke-talk. 

THE disposition and arrangement of 
our forces on the first day*s march 
can best be shown by the following 
document : — 

Headquarters Independent Brigade (Regulars), 
Camp at Yauco, Puerto Rico, 

Aug. 8, 1898. 

General Orders 

No. 13. 

This command will move out on the road 

to Sabana Grande at ten o'clock tomorrow 

morning. It will observe the following rules 

and order of march : — 

24 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 25 

1. Macomb's troop of cavalry will act 
as a screen, and will march about two miles 
in advance of the point of the advance- 
guard. The extent of the front to be 
covered by, and the disposition of the cav- 
alry, will depend upon the nature of the 
country, and will be left to the judgment 
of the troop commander. He will com- 
municate freely by means of orderlies with 
the commander of the advance-guard, who 
will at once transmit all messages to the 
commanding general. Three mounted or- 
derlies, to be furnished by the troop, will 
march with the advance-guard. 

2. Two companies of infantry, one pla- 
toon of artillery, and two Gatling guns will 
constitute the advance-guard. A pioneer 
detachment, consisting of one non-commis- 
sioned officer and eight men, to be carefully 
selected from the advance-guard, will march 
with the reserve, and will be under the di- 
rection of the engineer officer of the brigade. 
The requisite tools will be carried on a cart. 
Upon arriving in camp, the advance-guard 
will immediately establish the outpost. 



o6 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

3. The main body will consist of nine 
companies of infantry, one battery and two 
platoons of artillery, and two Gatling guns. 

4. The trains following the main body 
will be under the direction of the brigade 
quartermaster, and their order of march 
will be : — 

Hospital train. 
Ammunition column. 
Supply and baggage wagons. 

The rear-guard will be composed of one 
company of infantry. A detachment from 
it will protect exposed flanks of the train. 
If horses can be procured for them, the 
commanders of the advance and rear guards 
will be mounted. 

The above disposition for each day's 
march will be conformed to, unless otherwise 
ordered. 

By command of Brigadier-General Schwan. 

Grote Hutcheson, 
Captain and Assistant Adjutant-GeneraL 



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YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 27 

As Captain Macomb's cavalry had not 
arrived at the hour appointed for our start, 
we set off without him. And in fact there 
was Httle need of his services on that day, 
our march being through a section of the 
island already cleared of Spanish troops, and 
exceedingly slow and wearisome, besides. 

The route from Yauco to Sabana Grande 
lies for some two miles along the level and 
creditable road leading to Guanica, suddenly 
going off at right angles just beyond a pict- 
uresque sugar-mill into as uneven, crooked, 
and hilly a highway as can well be imagined. 

I cannot tell you in adequate language 
just how the tropical sun punishes the un- 
acclimated Northerner, especially if he be a 
foot-soldier tramping along in a blinding 
dust, parched of throat, empty of belly, and 
loaded down with a pack that would make 
a quartermaster's mule to fake the glanders. 
If you have been there, it needs no words 
of mine to galvanize your memory; and, if 
you have not, you cannot understand. This 
matter of the soldier's pack and what to do 
with it became a subject of serious consider- 



28 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

ation during the recent war, in both Cuba 
and Puerto Rico. On the march, in the 
charge or pursuit or retreat, it is a senseless, 
clogging, spirit-shackling incubus, a rank ab- 
surdity, and an utter impossibility. As a 
result, after three days of active campaign 
the infantryman is seen gayly stalking along 
with no burden save his rifle, ammunition- 
belt, and a wisp of gray blanket, which 
seems to me to be a fatuous and footless 
condition of affairs that might well be 
quickly remedied for the benefit of all con- 
cerned. 

As we passed the occasional little haci- 
enda, set in its grove of cocoanut palms or 
orange-trees, dusky and wrinkled women 
came forth from the doors, bearing upon 
their heads huge jars, from which we filled 
our ever-parched canteens with cool, sweet 
water. They also brought us mangoes and 
other native fruits, and queer cigars of most 
abominable flavor. Because we were for- 
bidden to eat of the fruit, we stuffed our- 
selves with it, and looked for more. From 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 29 

time to time a weary or sick soldier would 
lay himself down by the roadside, to be 
picked up later on by an ambulance ; but, as 
the day wore on, the intervals of rest grew 
longer and more frequent. We had but 
one opportunity to water the sweating horses 
of the artillery, and then it was a painful 
matter of buckets. We munched hard-tack 
for our noonday meal, and made merry over 
it, talking of the day when we should go 
home and feast on beans and beefsteak and 
countless other things of which the heathen 
wot not. We were intensely voluble or 
silent by turns, and invented new nick- 
names for each other, which were so apt, 
spite of being touched with bitterness, that 
they stuck forevermore. And never, so far 
as I can remember, did any one mention the 
" Maine " or Cuba Libre. 

At last, shortly after sunset, we descended 
a long, steep hillside, and went into camp in 
the valley of the Rio Grande, just without 
the gates of a small town, uninteresting in 
character, and Sabana Grande by name. 
We had marched only twelve miles, but 



30 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

were hungry, limp, and ugly. So, having 
crammed down a hasty supper of nothing in 
particular, we made short shift of absent 
tents, and, pulling our blankets to our chins, 
lay face upward to the stars that made us 
homesick, and slept the sleep of tired little 
children. 

I was wakened in the middle of the night 
by a distant jangle of sabres and rattle of 
hooves. Seeing our officer of the day. Lieu- 
tenant R. E. Callan, standing not far away 
and looming gigantic against the sky, I '., 
asked him the meaning of the noise ; and he i 
replied that it was Captain Macomb's troop 
of cavalry just coming in. I lit my pipe 
and talked for a while with the lieutenant of 
other things than war — Maude Adams and 
John Drew, football, ambition, and books — 
till finally he went away to make his rounds. 
My pipe went out, and I dreamed of stranger 
happenings than my longest thoughts could 
fashion in the glare of day. And, when I 
woke again, reveille was soaring from post 
to post. 



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CHAPTER III 

The People of Puerto Rico 

Their attitude toward the invading Americans — The 
proclamation of General Miles — Justice and the pri- 
vate soldier — Depravity of the native masses — Men 
and women of the better class — Local attributes of 
life — A hint to the weary. 

BEFORE proceeding further with the 
story of our advance, it may interest 
you to know what manner of people 
we found the Puerto Ricans to be, and how 
they behaved toward us who came to them 
as dogs of war. 

When we were first on the island, there is 
no doubt that the mass of the population 
regarded us with acute distrust, if not with 
dislike and fear. But the prompt measures 
taken by General Miles to disabuse their 
minds of any preconceived ideas of ensuing 
rape, robbery, or desecration, did much to 
soothe the more ignorant and childish of the 

3J 



j2 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

natives, while the intelligent and educated 
class needed no further assurance than that 
contained in the proclamation issued by the 
commanding general from Ponce on the 28th 
of July, which was as follows : — 

To THE Inhabitants of Puerto Rico ; 

In the prosecution of the war against the 
kingdom of Spain by the people of the 
United States, in the cause of liberty, justice, 
and humanity, its military forces have come 
to occupy the island of Puerto Rico. They 
come bearing the banner of freedom, in- 
spired by a noble purpose to seek the ene- 
mies of our country and yours, and to 
destroy or capture all who are in armed 
resistance. They bring you the fostering 
arm of a free people, whose greatest power 
is in its justice and humanity to all those 
living within its fold. Hence the first effect 
of this occupation will be the immediate re- 
lease from your former relations, and it is 
hoped a cheerful acceptance of the govern- 
ment of the United States. The chief ob- 
ject of the American military forces will be 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 3:^ 

to overthrow the armed authority of Spain, 
and to give the people of your beautiful 
island the largest measure of liberty consist- 
ent with this occupation. We have not 
come to make war upon the people of a 
country that for centuries has been op- 
pressed, but, on the contrary, to bring you 
protection, not only to yourselves, but to 
your property ; to promote your prosperity, 
and bestow upon you the immunities and 
blessings of the liberal institutions of our 
government. It is not our purpose to inter- 
fere with any existing laws and customs that 
are wholesome and beneficial to your people 
so long as they conform to the rules of mili- 
tary administration of order and justice. 
This is not a war of devastation, but one to 
give all within the control of its military and 
naval forces the advantages and blessings of 
enlightened civilization. 

Nelson A. Miles, 
Major-General, Commanding United States Army. 

The promises set forth in this document 
were kept to the letter. Indeed, Justice sat 



34 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

up so straight for the people of Puerto Rico 
that she often toppled over backward and 
crushed the American soldier. To steal 
anything, from a kiss to a cow, was almost 
a capital offence ; while houses and churches 
might have been lined with gold and jasper, 
or infected with the small-pox, so stringently 
were we kept out of them — at least during 
the hostile period. 

This was all a mighty good thing for 
somebody, no doubt, but it detracted in 
large chunks from the glamour of war for the 
soldier-boy ; and I fear that the majority of 
us felt hurt, if not sorely cheated. \ Nor is 
it at all certain that the average inhabitant of 
Puerto Rico is worth coddling, protection, 
prosperity, "and the immunities and bless- 
ings " accorded him by his new rulers./ A 
thick, stout cudgel or a bright, sharp axe 
will be more effective than honeyed words 
in helping him cheerfully to assimilate new 
ideas ; though no one will believe it here at 
home until the hurrah is all over and some 
of the truth gets into general circulation. 

About one-sixth of the population in this 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS :^s 

island — the educated class, and chiefly of 
pure Spanish blood — can be set down as 
valuable acquisitions to our citizenship and 
the peer, if not the superior, of most Ameri- 
cans in chivalry, domesticity, fidelity, and 
culture. Of the rest, perhaps one-half can 
be moulded by a firm hand into something 
approaching decency ; but the remainder are 
going to give us a great deal of trouble. 
They are ignorant, filthy, untruthful, lazy, 
treacherous, murderous, brutal, and black. 
Spain has kept her hand at their throats for 
many weary years, and the only thing that 
has saved them from being throttled is the 
powerful influence in their discipline effected 
by the Roman Catholic Church. When 
our zealous missionaries have succeeded in 
leading them Into the confines of other 
creeds, we shall have all the excitement we 
want in Puerto Rico, and the part of our 
army stationed there will have no lack of 
exercise. 

Despite a common belief to the contrary, 
the color-line Is drawn as rigidly In Puerto 
Rico as it Is In Kentucky. The people 



^6 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

having nothing but Castilian blood in their 
veins are as proud as Virtue ; and, while 
politics and business see a certain mingling 
of skin-colors, the mixture ceases to exist 
across the threshold of home. No true 
Spaniard would permit himself to sing of 
his " coal-black lady " or his " cute little 
yallar gal " ; and, if he did, he would be 
ostracized. 

The women are all very pretty or ex- 
tremely ugly, and never simply plain. The 
girls of the better class are brought up from 
babyhood under a constant surveillance that 
knows no laxity until after marriage, and 
does not altogether cease even then. The 
growing bud is taught to play the piano or 
guitar, to embroider, to sing a little, to dance 
a little less, to speak and read French, to 
powder her face with art, and to walk like a 
very queen. She is usually married before 
she is seventeen, especially if her father has 
money ; and, until the day of her death, she 
never sees a modern newspaper, never goes 
slumming, and never soils her gentle hands 
with work of any degree. She is apt to love 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 37 

her husband devotedly, and does not think 
her career fitly rounded until she is a mother. 

The men of the same social footing are 
not so interesting — to me ; but, nevertheless, 
they possess many characteristics which claim 
attention and deserve applause. They are 
never drunkards or wife-beaters ; they don't 
drag their business to the dinner-table and 
bed ; they are not given to profane speech ; 
and they show greater interest in a sonnet 
than in the price of pork. 

Life for both sexes and all grades in Puerto 
Rico is a rose, a kiss, and a cigarette ; song, 
laughter, and manana. The island is, un- 
equivocally, a Paradise ; and, if I remember 
rightly, dwellers in Paradise are not expected 
to labor. These people amply fulfil the ex- 
pectation. 

If you are sick of the worry and fret and 
jar of contemporaneous life here at home, if 
you care for wide, sweet blue sky, eternal 
flowers, crystal fountains, and gypsy music, 
then there is no better place for you to 
go than to Puerto Rico. Take a bicycle 
and ride from Ponce around the island or 



38 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

straight across to San Juan. You will find 
the roads, when there are roads, superlatively 
excellent — particularly, If you do not mind 
an occasional hill or sharp and sudden 
shower of rain. The larger cities all have 
comfortable hotels ; and, if you can afford to 
stay a month In Ponce, Mayaguez, and San 
Juan, you will bring back fragrant memories 
that will last you many years, or else you 
will send for your household gods and not 
come back at all. And, if you don't ride a 
bicycle, you will be able to get just as much 
pleasure from the toy railroad or wee horses 
when you travel about from place to place, 
while the expense In either case will be mar- 
vellously small. 



j 

i 



CHAPTER IV 

The Second Day Begins 

TVe march to San German — Removal of the sick 
from the ambulances — Jn approaching Spanish force 
— Our scouts and their leader — Concerning Senor 
Fijardo — Visible effects of imminent battle — Some- 
thing about the town of San German. 

AT eight o'clock in the morning on the 
loth of August General Schwan's 
brigade broke camp at Sabana 
Grande, and moved out on the road to 
San German. The order of march differed 
from that of the day before only in the 
presence of the troop of cavalry ; and, the 
command being well rested, such progress 
was made that the advance-guard reached 
the western side of San German by noon — 
a good ten miles. The main body halted 
at the same hour just outside the eastern 
entrance to the town, preparing a makeshift 
meal ; and at this point the sick, both on 

39 



40 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

their own account and to make room in the 
already crowded ambulances, were trans- 
ferred to a private hospital. 

Before quitting San German, word was 
brought to the commanding general that 
the entire Mayaguez garrison — some 1,362 
men, chiefly regulars — was marching in our 
direction, and would contest our advance. 
This information, which proved to be cor- 
rect, was at once communicated to the 
cavalry and advance-guard, with orders to 
proceed with the greatest care, and to reduce 
somewhat the distances ordinarily separating 
the different parts of the column. 

Our source of information at this and 
other important times was a small body of 
native scouts, numbering from 6 to 1 1 
men and commanded by Lugo Vina, a 
swarthy, wizened little Puerto Rican, who 
looked like General Gomez and was taci- 
turn as an Indian. He was considered by 
General Schwan to be a man of great char- 
acter and force. These scouts were well 
mounted, and accompanied the brigade dur- 
ing its entire march, rendering most impor- 




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YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 41 

tant and efficient service. Three of them 
were arrested as spies by Spanish officials 
between Las Marias and Mayaguez, and 
narrowly escaped being shot. Eventually, 
they suffered nothing worse than imprison- 
ment for several months at San Juan ; and, 
when the Evacuation Commission arranged 
for their release, the United States reim- 
bursed them to the full extent of their 
wages for the period of their captivity. 

One Seiior Fijardo — while not, properly 
speaking, a scout — was yet of considerable 
service to General Schwan as interpreter and 
guide up to the taking of Mayaguez. And, 
because he had in addition been exceedingly 
useful to our government before the actual 
breaking out of war, it was the wish of 
General Miles to confer upon him some 
suitable reward immediately hostilities were 
suspended. As he was a prosperous planter 
within the jurisdiction of Mayaguez, it was 
proposed that he be made alcalde, or mayor, 
of that city. And this General Schwan was 
prepared to do, when a fierce, resistless op- 



42 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

position to the plan sprang spontaneously 
from the inhabitants of the municipality 
most interested. Fijardo was accused by 
persons of prominence and unquestionable 
veracity of having perpetrated nearly all the 
crimes known to mankind, from incest to 
murder. It was conclusively proved that 
he had lived in too intimate relationship 
with his niece, and had an unpleasant habit 
of hiring assassins to avenge his wrongs. 
He strenuously denied every allegation 
made against him, and clamored that the 
promised honor be conferred upon him 
without delay. But in the face of so much 
scandal there was nothing for General 
Schwan to do but leave the residents of 
Mayaguez to decide the question for them- 
selves, which they did in a most emphatic 
manner by refusing to entertain Fijardo as 
a possibility and presenting the name of 
Senor Santiago Palmer as an acceptable sub- 
stitute. This latter gentleman subsequently 
received the appointment. 

The news that we were about to meet the 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 43 

Spanish forces face to face spread rapidly 
among the men in the ranks, and aroused 
more enthusiasm than terrapin and cham- 
pagne could have done. Nobody any 
longer complained of the heat; and, when 
it began to shower by fits and starts, nobody 
complained of that, either. There were no 
more stragglers casting a windward eye to an 
empty ambulance, nor growls because we 
pressed forward so rapidly. 

On that particular afternoon I was with 
the advance-guard ; and, when we had learned 
what we might expect before sunset, I stud- 
ied the men about me with a lively curiosity 
as to what effect the probability of immedi- 
ate action would have upon their visible 
emotions. 

Most of them, in our platoon of artillery 
at least, were boys, or little more than boys, 
and almost without exception recruits of 
less than six months' standing. It might 
have been expected that some degree of 
gravity would have crept over them in the 
nearness of such unpleasant possibilities ; but 
never were they more gay and care-free, to 



44 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

all appearance. Old jests already worn to 
shreds before we left the transport at 
Guanica were once more revived, and 
capered with new life. Good-natured irony- 
flew from lip to lip in fantastic speculation 
as to probable promotions in case all the 
officers should be killed at the first go-oflf. 
The horses were told, individually and with 
great tenderness, just what every man ex- 
pected of them in the approaching crisis. 
And no comrade gave another any instruc- 
tions regarding mother or the girl at home, 
if he were to bite the dust. For my own 
part, I found my mind so busy in going over 
the cadences of a waltz I had danced with 
Somebody months before that I could not 
bring myself to consider anything else but 
the beauty of its refrain — or was it Her 
eyes ? — try as I might. And, besides, it is 
not profitable to shake hands with the devil 
until you are within reach of his claw. 

The wagon-road leading from San Ger- 
man, over which we were now marching, 
follows the valley of the Rio Grande, whose 
flats, varying in width from a few hundred 






crq 



> 




YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 45 

to a thousand yards, extend on each side to 
a chain of hills. On either hand, in the im- 
mediate distance, are fields of sugar-cane, 
bounded wherever they touch the road by 
wire fences. 

San German, the city through which we 
had just passed, is a place of nearly 10,000 
inhabitants, with a jurisdiction numbering 
30,600. It has three very fine markets, a 
charity hospital, a seminary, good school 
buildings, theatre, and casino. There is a 
railroad in construction, a post-ofiice and 
telegraph station. It is situated on a long, 
uneven hill, at the foot of which lies 
the beautiful valley of the Juanjibos and 
Boqueron Rivers, which is made a veritable 
garden of enchantment by the orange, 
lemon, and tamarind trees, together with 
various other plants, growing there in abun- 
dance. The town was founded in 151 1 by 
Captain Miguel Toro, and has borne the 
title of city since 1877. The principal 
streets are called Luna and Comercio. Its 
chief plaza is of notable size, its church is 



46 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

quite regular in architecture, though of old 
construction, and the barracks of the in- 
fantry and civil guard merit mention. 
Finally, it may be said that its citizens have 
held a distinguished record for bravery and 
patriotism ever since their decisive victory 
over the English forces in 1743. 



CHAPTER V 

The Engagement at Hormigueros 

Topography of the battlefield — Macomb's cavalry 
fired into by Spanish skirmishers — Our advance- 
guard comes into contact with the foe — General 
Schwan reaches the firing line — The main body 
arrives and joins in the fray — Subsequent manosu- 
vres of our column — The Spanish retreat — A com- 
putation of losses. 

THE ensuing account of our fight with 
the Alphonso XIII Regiment of 
Cazadores, on the loth of August, is 
taken bodily from the official report made 
by General Schwan to Major-General Miles 
under date of August 21: — 

At a distance of about seven miles from 
Mayaguez the Rio Rosario, coming from 
the east, parallels the road for nearly a 
mile, and empties into the Rio Grande just 

47 



48 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

south of Hormigueros. A sugar-mill stands 
just off the road to the left ; and a wagon- 
road branches off to the right, lined with 
hedge and brush, and, crossing the Rosario 
on an iron bridge, leads to the hamlet of 
Hormigueros, which is located on a side 
hill 1,500 yards from the main road. The 
ground to the south of Hormigueros is 
covered with banana groves and cane fields. 
At about 600 yards from where the Hormi- 
gueros road leaves the main road the latter 
crosses the Rio Grande on a wooden bridge. 
Just beyond this bridge the road to Cabo 
Rojo branches off to the south. From this 
point, for nearly a mile, the main road 
passes through very low, flat ground, cut 
up with deep furrows, which extend to the 
hills on the left and the river on the right, 
and contain considerable water from recent 
rains. . . . To resume the narrative of the 
day*s events, near a point on the main 
road where it is flanked by sugar-mills 
our cavalry was fired into, though without 
effect, by the enemy's scouts, who were con- 
cealed behind a hedge lining the Hormi- 



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YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 49 

gueros road. They were easily dispersed. 
The infantry and advance-guard having 
passed this point, the cavalry took the latter 
road, and, crossing the Rosario, turned west- 
ward, and advanced under cover of the 
railroad embankment until — taking every 
opportunity to damage the enemy by its fire 
action — it reached a position beyond the 
covered wooden bridge. 

The brigade commander had left San 
German at the head of the main body. 
When he heard the firing in his front, he 
sent word to commanding officers to ad- 
vance without further halt, and to keep their 
commands closed up. Similar orders were 
sent to the train. He was informed and 
approved of the route taken by the cavalry 
before reaching the bridge. He crossed the 
latter about half-past three o'clock, being at 
that time about 500 yards in advance of the 
main body. 

A staff officer, who had been sent ahead 
to select camp, reported at this time the 
ground west of the Cabo Rojo road as 
suitable for this purpose ; but owing to the 



so YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

suspected proximity of the enemy, whose 
position had not yet been determined, it was 
decided to push ahead and beyond the iron 
bridge. This, despite the fact that the men 
had now marched 13 miles and were very 
tired. Once in possession of the bridge and 
the high ground to the north of it, the com- 
mand would occupy a strong position, which 
would make it hard to check its advance 
on Mayaguez. Accordingly, the advance- 
guard, under Captain Hoyt, moved forward, 
deploying its advance party as skirmishers 
and its supports into a line of squads. In 
this formation it continued until it had ap- 
proached the bridge within about 400 yards. 
At this juncture the enemy opened fire, at 
first individual fire. The firing aimed at 
the advance-guard accelerated the march of 
the Eleventh Infantry, which . . . reported 
to the brigade commander, whose staff had 
already commenced the demolition of the 
wire fences enclosing the road. About the 
time that the brigade commander caused the 
deployment of two companies to re-enforce 
the advance-guard, — Major Gilbraith in 



3 






< 




YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 51 

command, — the enemy, from his position in 
the hills to the right front, fired volleys at 
the main body through the interval separat- 
ing the infantry advance-guard from the 
cavalry, wounding a number of men, also 
an officer and several horses of the brigade 
staff. Meanwhile the artillery battalion, 
under the authority of the brigade com- 
mander, had taken up a position to the left 
of the road. As the powder used by the 
enemy was absolutely smokeless, and his 
position being, moreover, for the most part 
screened by the trees along the Rio Grande, 
the question of the exact direction to be 
given Major Gilbraith's detachment, and to 
the lines of battle about to be formed from 
the main column, became a most perplexing 
one. Luckily, this uncertainty did not last 
long, those of the enemy^s bullets that 
struck the ground near us solving the prob- 
lem. Some slight confusion was caused by 
a premature and hurried deployment of the 
remaining companies, which interfered some- 
what with the brigade commander's intention 
of forming two additional lines, one to sup- 



52 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

port the fighting line and the other to act 
as a reserve, or as the changing conditions 
of the combat might render expedient. But 
under his supervision this defective forma- 
tion was soon rectified, three companies 
being placed on the right and four com- 
panies on the left of the road, the former, 
under Lieutenant-Colonel Burke, moving 
forward in support of Major Gilbraith, and 
the latter being held back for a time. 
Major Gibraith and Colonel Burke's troops, 
being unable to cross the creek, passed over 
the bridge that spans it by the left flank, the 
former's companies having previously occu- 
pied a sheltered place in a ditch parallel to 
and to the right of the main road. About 
this time the advance-guard, one of the 
companies of which (Penrose's) had previ- 
ously held for a short time a knoll on the 
left of the road, moved forward and crossed 
the iron bridge, the advance sections of the 
companies being led by Lieutenants Alex- 
ander and Wells, respectively. After . . . 
a time the entire advance-guard, including 
the two Gatling guns, was concentrated on 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS S3 

the right of the railroad. It dislodged the 
enemy, and with the cavalry troop to the 
right, — the troop had arrived about this 
time, after doing effective service in threat- 
ening the enemy's flank, — and with the 
companies of Major Gilbraith pushed for- 
ward in the centre, took up a position on 
the northern line of hills. Here they were 
rejoined by the infantry and by two pieces 
of artillery under First Lieutenant Archi- 
bald Campbell, which the brigade com- 
mander had ordered forward, and which by 
their fire added to the discomfiture of the 
enemy. The two Gatling guns under Lieu- 
tenant Maginnis, with the advance, did good 
work, at first in a place near the creek where 
the gunners had a good view of the enemy, 
and later on at the various positions of the 
advance-guard. The two guns from the 
main body were also operated from the crest 
of the hill during the latter stage of the 
combat. 

The affair ended about six o'clock ; and 
the troops, including all the artillery, bivou- 
acked on or near the position occupied by 



54 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

the enemy. The wagon train afterward went 
Into park between the railroad and the Rio 
Grande, near enough to enable the men 
to get what was necessary for their comfort 
during the night. Before darkness set in, 
Captain Macomb with his troop was directed 
to make an effort to capture a railway train 
in plain sight from the hill occupied by the 
command ; but the train got under way be- 
fore he could reach it. It also escaped some 
shots that were fired at it by the artillery. 
Although it had now become quite dark, 
the captain picked up a few prisoners, includ- 
ing a wounded lieutenant. 

The difficulty in locating the enemy, and 
hence in giving proper direction to the attack 
formations, has already been alluded to. 
Another cause of anxiety during the earlier 
stage of the fight were the reports that came 
to the brigade commander from different 
parts of the field, through officers, that the 
enemy was getting around our right (or left) 
flank, and endeavoring to capture our train. 
There may have been some foundation for 
these reports ; but, if so, the flanking parties 



< 






.o 




YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 55 

were probably small, and deterred from pur- 
suing their design by our steady advance. 
It may be added that the train was well 
guarded. 

Our loss embraced i enlisted man killed 
and I officer and 1 5 men wounded. All the 
wounded, the surgeons say, will recover. 
The enemy's loss cannot be definitely ascer- 
tained, but it is estimated at 1 5 killed alone. 
It probably did not fall short of 50 in killed 
and wounded. 

The command continued its march at an 
early hour the following morning, the ad- 
vance-guard and the main body proceeding 
slowly and with great caution. This extra 
care was unnecessary. Those of the enemy's 
forces that were held in reserve (some of 
them not far from the city) had fled precipi- 
tately as soon as they realized the extent of 
their defeat. 

In connection with the foregoing report I 
consider the subjoined document as being of 
interest: — 



SG YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

Headquarters United States Military 
Expedition in Camp at Mayaguez, 

Puerto Rico, Aug. 12, 1898. 

General Orders 
No. 14. 

The brigadier-general commanding de- 
sires to convey to the officers and soldiers of 
his command his thanks for their excellent 
conduct in the engagement they had on the 
loth instant, near the town of Hormigueros, 
with the Spanish forces in that vicinity. 
Concealed in a strong position, they poured 
a murderous fire into our troops about to go 
into camp after a fatiguing march. Had the 
disposition of the cavalry screen and of the 
advance-guard — which latter included both 
infantry and artillery — been less perfect, or 
had the command been deficient in discipline 
or other soldierly qualities, such an attack 
might have proved disastrous. As it was, it 
was promptly and gallantly repulsed, the re- 
pulse resulting in the enemy's precipitate 
evacuation of the city of Mayaguez, though 
it had been placed in a state of defence. 

The major-general commanding the army 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 57 

has been pleased to commend the troops for 
their gallant action on this occasion, — a fact 
which it affords the brigade commander gen- 
uine satisfaction to announce. 

By command of Brigadier-General Schwan. 

Grote Hutcheson, 
Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General. 



CHAPTER VI 
The Second Day Ends 

A personal resume of the fight — Lack of melodramatic 
accompaniments — A lost chance of glory — Another 
neglected opportunity — A glimpse of the flag — Once 
more into camp. 

A T the risk of being considered tauto- 
rA logical, I cannot refrain from devot- 
ing another chapter to the Hormi- 
gueros fight : first, because it was my initial 
experience under fire ; and, second, because 
there are more things in a soldier's memory 
than are set forth in the official report of his 
commanding general. 

Our advance-guard, after leaving San Ger- 
man, marched rapidly along the level road 
leading to Mayaguez until about three o'clock 
in the afternoon. As the head of our column 
came into view, the country people living 
along the route gathered their most precious 
possessions into huge bundles, and hurried 

s8 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 59 

away across the fields, — a sure sign that we 
were approaching the enemy's position. At 
the hour mentioned we were suddenly set 
upon by a blinding shower, and a halt was 
made for about fifteen minutes, when, the 
fury of the downpour having somewhat 
abated, we once more began to move ahead. 
The cavalry had gone off on a side road for 
some purpose not known to me, and the in- 
fantry was deployed in long lines to the right 
and left, while the artillery brought up the 
rear at an interval of about a hundred yards. 
At half-past three the skirmishers came to 
the Rio Rosario, but, being unable to ford 
it, were called back to the road and started 
across the iron bridge, already described by 
General Schwan. It was at this moment 
that the Spanish forces opened fire, concealed 
in a dense undergrowth about 500 yards in 
our front. 

** All jammed together as we were, it would 
seem that we might have been absolutely 
slaughtered by the leaden hail which was 
poured in upon us ; and the only explana- 
tion of our marvellous immunity probably 



6o YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

lies in the fact that the enemy were surpris- 
ingly bad shots. Bullets whistled by our 
heads, or kicked up the dirt at our feet; 
but, though the pop of rifles made up a con- 
tinuous sound like the opening of a hundred 
thousand beer-bottles, not a vestige of smoke 
rose in the clear air, not a patch of hostile 
uniform was to be seen. 

For some reason our infantry did not at 
once reply to the Spanish fusillade ; and dur- 
ing this brief interval two men and two 
horses were wounded in the platoon of artil- 
lery which stood idly just behind the foot- 
soldiers, — too close, in fact, to be of any 
service, and in the way of everybody. Then 
the two Gatling guns under Lieutenant Ma- 
ginnis went off into the field at our right, 
where they began to speak for themselves ; 
and Gatling guns in action have a mighty 
cheerful effect upon your nerves, if they hap- 
pen to be on your side of the fracas. Next, 
an order from the general sent the artillery 
galloping to the rear for abour an eighth of 
a mile, where, after a short detour to the 
left and a mad race across swampy, ditch- 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 6i 

dug fields, it took up a temporary position 
on a convenient knoll. The main body of 
our command had meanwhile arrived, and 
got into the row without ceremony, the fir- 
ing now being heavy on both sides. My 
memory serves me with no clear impression 
of the sequence of events after this period. 

During the first hour of our fighting all 
the powder used by us was as smokeless as 
that of the foe, and again and again the re- 
mark was passed that this did not seem like 
the real business of war. In other respects 
as well there were few of the accompani- 
ments that we conjure up in our stay-at- 
home imagination of battle scenes. There 
was a little galloping of hooves, not long sus- 
tained ; an occasional sharp cry of command 
or sharper oath ; an intermittent rumble and 
jar from the infrequently moved artillery, 
not yet in action ; and perhaps a groan or 
two from the wounded. But, even when the 
field-rifles began to boom and shroud the 
landscape in drifting smoke, the make-believe 
aspect of the affair did not in any degree 
diminish. There were no clouds of dust. 



62 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

no heaps of slain, no cheers, no desperate 
charges, and not even a glimpse of the stars 
and stripes. Away to our right we could 
see crowds of spectators on the elevated plat- 
form surrounding the Sanctuary of Montser- 
rate ; and I remember thinking it was well 
no admission fee had been charged for the 
spectacle upon which they gazed, else they 
would have murmured themselves defrauded. 
My own most thrilling moments came 
about in this way : The platoon of artillery 
to which I belonged had, as already related, 
decided that its position directly behind the 
hotly beset infantry was untenable, and con- 
sequently fell back at speed, for some dis- 
tance. Standing at the head of the first piece, 
with all my faculties engrossed by the scene 
before me, I did not hear the order which 
should have sent me scampering to my seat 
on the limber-chest, and so suddenly found 
myself alone, with my comrades mounted 
and away in full career. A glance about me 
disclosed the fact that no other living thing 
was standing up within a radius of five hun- 
dred yards. I was a conspicuous mark for 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 63 

the eager slayers in the adjacent underbrush; 
and I ought, of course, to rejoin my section 
as quickly as possible. So I ran. It oc- 
curred to me that here was my chance to 
show what I was made of. I would stop 
running, fill and light my pipe, and stalk in 
a leisurely manner down the white road, 
thus winning, perhaps, comment and applause 
from high places. I say all this occurred to 
me ; but I also happened to recollect the 
story told of the survivor of Bull Run, who 
replied to a sneering criticism anent the 
Federal retreat from that famous field by 
the sententious rejoinder that "all them as 
didn't run was there yet," — and I felt that 
I could fully appreciate the point. So I 
continued to sprint as fast as I could, leaving 
the bubble Reputation for other seekers, or 
for myself upon some other day and field. 
I was not afraid, and I was simply doing my 
duty ; but I sometimes think that I may 
have neglected the flood-tide of opportunity, 
and I often wonder why, in melodramatic 
crises, a man's mind is not always able to 
control his legs. 



64 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

I was not alone in the disregard of ro- 
mantic possibilities. Later in the afternoon 
I saw a wounded private propped up against 
a fence, and bleeding copiously from a bullet- 
hole that extended through both cheeks. 
His eyes were closed, and he was making 
queer noises in his throat. As I happened 
to be idle at the instant, I stepped to his side, 
and inquired compassionately if I could do 
anything for him. He opened his eyes with 
a jerk, spat forth a couple of teeth, and 
replied : " If you'll tell me how the beginning 
of 'Sweet Marie' goes, I'll give you a piece 
of my face for a souvenir. I've been trying 
to get that blame tune straight for the last 
fifteen minutes, but keep getting off my 
trolley." And he laughed a ghastly laugh. 
I stared at him in amazement, and then, see- 
ing that he was not delirious, strode moodily 
away. What that man ought to have said 
was, " How goes the fight ? " or " A drop of 
water, for God's sake " ; but it is the pain- 
ful truth that he didn't. 

A striking feature of the engagement was 
the thoroughly matter-of-fact manner in 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 6s 

which both officers and men went about their 
work. There was no strutting, no posing, 
no shirking, but an evident intention on the 
part of all concerned, from General Schwan 
down, to do whatever had to be done with- 
out unnecessary fuss and feathers, promptly 
and well. I have seen far more excitement 
displayed on an ordinary drill-ground at 
home, in the piping times of peace. 

A sudden appearance of the flag just 
after the trumpets had sounded "cease firing " 
brought moisture to the eyes of many a 
toughened veteran ; but even then, with vic- 
tory still glowing in our grasp, there was not 
the ghost of a cheer. We were simply more 
tired and hungry than usual, and until matters 
had been straightened out for the night had 
no time for sentiment. And, when we finally 
went into camp on the very field where we 
had just ceased fighting, we found our chief 
interest centred in hot coffee, crisp hard-tack, 
and comfortable blankets. We had begun 
to realize that we might have lain stiffer and 
starker that night but for the whim of chance, 
and were silent with the clacking tongue. 



/ i 



66 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

HormigueroSj the village which gave its 
name to this engagement, is a place of about 
3jOOO inhabitants, whose houses cluster about 
the base of the mountain crowned by the 
Sanctuary of Montserrate. This church is 
visited by an endless stream of pilgrims, and 
many wild legends are told concerning it. 



CHAPTER VII 

The Occupation of Mayaguez 

We enter the city in triumph — An enthusiastic re- 
ception — A pretty girl and the star-spangled ban- 
ner — Other memorable incidents — Our rags and 
tatters — A description of Mayaguez — TVe pitch 
our tents in a swamp — The First Kentucky Volun- 
teers. 

AS early as half-past eight on the follow- 
ing morning — August 1 1 — our scouts 
entered the city of Mayaguez, some 
three or four miles distant from our camp of 
the night before. About an hour later Cap- 
tain Macomb marched his troop through 
the streets, accompanied by the brigade head- 
quarters staff. Many prominent citizens 
greeted General Schwan at the Casa del Rey, 
and declared themselves subject to his orders. 
At eleven o'clock the entire brigade en- 
tered Mayaguez, with the general riding at 
its head, colors flying, and band playing. 

67 



68 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

We had been through this triumphal entry 
business several times before ; but I, for one, 
never grew tired of it. It was for all the 
world like being in the procession of a great 
circus. The sidewalks, balconies, windows, 
and roof-tops were packed with wide-eyed 
humanity, of all ages and conditions, hues, 
sizes, and degrees of beauty. At every 
street corner, and in every square, great 
crowds of the lower classes rent the air with 
vivas and bravos, regulating their enthusi- 
asm by the size of the guns that swung past 
them. It is easy enough for some grades 
of mankind to cheer with frenzy the appear- 
ance of a victor, no matter who he be ; and 
a Chinese host would have been received 
with just as much acclaim as we were, had 
they come as conquering heroes. The houses 
of the aristocrats sent us no demonstration 
of feeling one way or the other, with a single 
startling and highly dramatic exception. We 
had turned from the Calle Mirasol into the 
Calle Candalaria, and the head of the colum i 
had almost reached the Plaza Principal. 
The band had just crashed into " The Stars 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 69 

and Stripes Forever." Suddenly the crowd 
on an upper balcony of a stately house to 
the left was seen to sway violently ; and a 
moment later a beautiful young girl, tears 
streaming from her eyes, leant far out over 
the rail, and waved a crudely made Old 
Glory over the ragged ranks below. For a 
breath we were struck dumb by this appari- 
tion. Then every hat came off; and for the 
first time that day we split the heavens with 
a cheer, — lustily and long. The outbreak 
was infectious, and from every side the clamor 
swelled and burst till it seemed as if the uni- 
verse had vaulted into mad tumult at the 
touch of a girFs hand. Her name was 
Catalina Palmer, and she has since married 
an American lieutenant. But that, as Kip- 
ling would say, is another story. 

At one corner a richly dressed old woman 
threw handful after handful of small silver 
coins among us. In several places we trod 
upon great quantities of flowers thrown in 
our path by peasant girls. The flags of 
England, Germany, France, and Italy, were 
everywhere to be seen. The quaintly uni- 



70 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

formed corps of firemen turned out in 
splendor to do us honor, and we saluted 
with grave dignity the immense statue of 
Columbus standing in the centre of the 
town. By those who entered Mayaguez 
that day none of these things will ever be 
forgotten. 

From a spectacular point of view I am 
inclined to believe that Kiralfy would have 
regarded us with scorn and derision, though 
Jack FalstafF might have been better 
pleased. We were gaunt, bronzed, and di- 
shevelled, unshaven, dirty, and tattered. 
Toes protruded from shoes, our hats 
were full of holes, our trousers hardly de- 
served the name, and we limped disgrace- 
fully. It was the popular impression in 
Puerto Rico that every American soldier 
was a full-fledged millionaire, but even they 
expressed some disappointment at our evi- 
dent disregard for the external superfluities 
of elegance. But, when you stop to con- 
sider it, we did not go to the Antilles to 
make love to the pretty girls. We were 
quite sufficiently clothed and fed to march 




/ 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 71 

through tropical underbrush, take several 
cities, and put our more gaudily equipped 
enemies to ignominious flight. And that 
is what we were there for. 

In the early part of the afternoon we 
went into camp about a mile and a half 
outside the city lines, and the main body 
remained here until August 13. The camp- 
ing-ground was a bad one, lying as it did 
in a bgwl formed by a circle of low hills ; 
and it was soaked and spongy to a degree 
approaching absolute swampiness. As we 
were not allowed to go into the city, we 
grudgingly sat still, and chanted our mis- 
ery to the unresponsive wilderness, getting 
our feet wet and gathering the frolicsome 
malaria germ by way of interlude. 

On the evening of our arrival a transport 
steamed into the bay, having on board the 
First Kent ucky Volunteers, who for some 
weeks afterward were quartered in the town, 
doing provost duty and breaking hearts. 
Later on we came to know them well ; and, 
when they marched away to Ponce, we 
missed them sadly. They had lots of 
money, and they spent it freely. We of 



72 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

the regular brigade had not been paid for 
three months. 

• •••••• 

Mayaguez is a darling little city on the 
western coast of Puerto Rico, — a place of 
lattices, balconies, and walled-in gardens 
ablaze with blossoms. Behind it lies a 
semicircle of green hills, and before it is the 
laughing sea. Columbus touched here in 
one of his earlier voyages, and historical 
associations have been accumulating ever 
since. 

It is the third largest town on the island, 
having a population of 25,000, the majority 
of whom are white. The harbor is next 
best to that at San Juan, — 102 miles distant, 
— and is an open roadstead formed by two 
projecting capes. It is a seaport of consid- 
erable commerce, and exports sugar, coffee, 
oranges, pineapples, and cocoanuts in large 
quantities, — principally, with the exception 
of coffee, to the United States. Of industry 
not much can be said, save that there are 
three manufactories of chocolate, solely for 
local consumption. The climate is excel- 
lent, the temperature never exceeding 90° F. 



^ YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 73 

The city is connected by tramway with 
the neighboring town of Aguadilla, and by 
railroad with Lares on one side and Hor- 
migueros on the other. It has a civil and 
military hospital, two asylums, a public 
library, three bridges, a handsome market, — 
the best on the island, constructed entirely 
of iron and stone, at a cost of 70,000 pesos, 
— a slaughter-house, a theatre, a casino, and 
a number of societies of instruction, recrea- 
tion, and commerce. It also has a post- 
office and telegraph station ; was founded 
in 1760, and given the title of city in 1877. 

A river called the Mayaguez divides 
the town into two parts, connected by 
two pretty iron bridges named Marina and 
Guenar, respectively. The sands of this 
river formerly yielded much gold ; and 
there is gold still to be had from the same 
source, if one has energy enough to seek 
it. There are no less than 37 streets 
and 4 squares, — the Principal, Mercado, 
Iglesia, and Teatro, — all adorned by dainty 
fountains, and, in one instance, — the Plaza 
del Teatro, — a veritable ocean of flowers as 
well. The Calle Mendez-Vigo is one of 



74 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

the most picturesque and attractive streets 
in the world. It stretches from one end of 
the town to the other, wide and beautifully 
clean ; and it is lined on either hand by the 
handsome houses of rich merchants. In 
the middle of its length lies the Plaza del 
Flores, between the theatre and the Hotel 
Paris. Moreover, it is in the Calle Men- 
dez-Vigo that there lives the prettiest girl 
in Puerto Rico, — a little maid of sixteen 
years, Esperanza Bages by name, and 
already famous for her charms. 

The church was built in 1760. It is 
of masonry, with two towers and magnifi- 
cent altars. The town hall, situated on the 
Plaza Principal, is a good stone building of 
two stories. Annexed to it is the Casa del 
Rey, built in 1832, and serving for offices 
of the military commandancy. The infan 
try barracks — Cuartel del Infanteria — is 
also a building of modern construction, 
dating from 1 848 ; and, though of simple 
architecture, it is very capacious. 

And now let us leave Mayaguez for a 
little while, and get on with the war. 






p 

r. 



p 




CHAPTER VIII 

The Engagement at Las Marias 

Difficulties encountered in locating the retreating enemy 
— Final determination upon pursuit — Lieutenant- 
Colonel Burke sets forth — Discovery of Spanish troops 
near Las Marias — A one-sided encounter — Unwel- 
come notification of truce — The rest of the brigade 
comes up . — Feeding the prisoners — Our disappoint- 
ment. 

Headquarters Independent Brigade (Regulars), 
Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, 

Aug. 22, 1898. 

General J. C. Gilmore, Headquarters of the Army, 
Ponce, P.R. 

Sir, — . . . Detachments from the cavalry 
troop went out (from Mayaguez) in the after- 
noon of the nth on both roads leading to 
Lares ; but the left hand or westerly of these 
roads was followed only a short distance, in- 
formation, thought to be reliable, having 
been received to the effect that the bulk of 
the enemy*s force had taken the more east- 

75 



76 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

erly road, on which the town of Maricao is 
situated. This part of the force was reported 
as making fair headway, having only a pack- 
train as transportation. Reports also came 
to brigade headquarters that Spanish troops 
in large numbers, coming from different 
places,^ — including Aguadilla and Pepino, — 
were concentrating to attack my command. 
While not impressed with the accuracy of 
these reports, I had the outposts strength- 
ened, and placed a field officer in charge of 
them. A party from the outposts, sent to 
reconnoitre the Las Marias road, brought 
word on the afternoon of the I2th that the 
rear-guard of the Spanish was still within five 
miles of Mayaguez, and proceeding slowly. 

I immediately determined to pursue and, 
if possible, to capture or destroy this force, 
and at first resolved to move out with the 
entire command. On reflection, however, I 
realized that there were objections to such a 
course. The city and surrounding country 
were in an unsettled and excited state, the 
latter swarming with guerillas, deserters, and 
bushwackers. I had no accurate ^knowledge 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 77 

of the spirit, strength, and location of the 
enemy's forces, supposed to be within easy 
reach of Mayaguez. Then, too, the rest of 
my command, already worn down by the ex- 
hausting marches and operations beginning 
on the 9th, had been seriously broken in 
upon by heavy outpost duty and drenching 
rains, which latter had made their camp a 
veritable mud-hole. Furthermore, the road 
to Lares, except for the first eight miles out, 
was said to be all but impassable for wheeled 
vehicles ; and this reminded me that the 
major-general commanding had intimated 
that I might have to go to Lares by way of 
Aguadilla. I therefore concluded to de- 
spatch a reconnoissance in force, under Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Burke, Eleventh Infantry, to 
harass the enemy and to retard its progress 
in every way. The detachment was made up 
of six companies of infantry and one platoon 
each of cavalry and artillery, and started at 
ten o'clock a.m. on August 12. It was 
given ample transportation for its three days' 
rations and the infantrymen's packs. It was 
therefore as mobile as it could be made with- 



78 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

out a pack-train. Hindered by excessive 
heat, followed by heavy showers, it marched 
only to a point where the two roads, above 
mentioned, are joined by a cross-road, — or 
about nine miles. I did not hear from Col- 
onel Burke during the night, as I had hoped 
to ; and the remainder of my command had 
its wagons packed, and was preparing to pull 
out on the morning of the 13th, when a 
courier came to me from him with a report 
of the difficulties that had retarded his prog- 
ress, and of the presence of a Spanish force 
near Las Marias, variously estimated at from 
1,200 to 2,500. This force, the colonel 
said, had taken up a defensive position ; and 
he was moving toward it . . . 

Respectfully submitted, 

Theodore Schwan, 
Brigadier-General Commanding. 

Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, Aug. 16. 
My dear Gilmore, — Availing myself of the 
first breathing-spell I have had for some 
time, I wish in this informal way and in 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 79 

advance of my regular report to say a few 
words to the general and yourself regarding 
our last Saturday's work (August 13). 

As soon as the result of the Hormigueros 
fight became known in Mayaguez — about 
nine o'clock on the loth — Colonel Sotp, the 
commander, " pulled up stakes." That the 
Spanish troops left in the greatest hurry the 
condition of their barracks abundantly evi- 
denced. Our advance-guard found the city 
entirely clear of the Spanish, and I ordered 
my cavalry to keep in touch with them. 
The cavalry took the right-hand road of the 
two roads leading to Lares, over which some 
of the Spanish troops had actually gone ; and 
in the evening the troop commander reported 
that they were between seven and ten miles 
off, and still retreating. My command was 
thoroughly tired. No one without witness- 
ing it can conceive the distress an infantry 
soldier suffers while marching in this hot 
climate, in a deep column, weighted down as 
he is even without his pack ; and some rest 
seemed actually imperative. But the next 
morning I found that the main body of the 



8o YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

Spanish had taken the westerly (or left hand) 
road to Lares, and early on Friday — there 
being many other things to engage the atten- 
tion of myself and troops — I started Burke 
out in pursuit, with about 700 men, all told. 
I overtook him Saturday morning about three 
and one-half miles north of Las Marias. His 
infantry had pulled his guns over roads that 
were almost perpendicular. His troops were 
exchanging shots at long range across a deep 
valley with the retreating Spaniards, most of 
whom had forded (losing a lot of men, who 
were drowned) a deep and rapid river known 
in that country as the Rio Prieto. Our fire 
had already demoralized the thoroughly dis- 
heartened and half-famished Spanish soldiers ; 
and their rear-guard, at least, was also disor- 
ganized and hiding in the hills. 

A company of infantry I had sent out 
brought in, about ten o'clock in the evening, 
forty odd prisoners, a number of pack-ani- 
mals, etc. Our men were thoroughly worn 
out by the day's work. Early the next 
morning I had four companies of infantry, 
the cavalry, and two guns ready to resume 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 8i 

the pursuit. And there cannot be the shadow 
of a doubt that, had I had Hvt more hours, I 
should have taken Lares ; for that the flying 
Spaniards had prepared to abandon it at once 
I have the most reliable information. But 
at this particular juncture the notice that hos- 
tilities would be suspended came to me. No 
troops ever " suspended " with worse grace. 
We had given the Spanish no peace, and had 
taken all the starch out of them. The 
colonel and lieutenant-colonel had surren- 
dered. Their troops were utterly demoral- 
ized and disintegrated. It seemed a pity to 
deprive us of the full fruits of a victory for 
which we had labored so hard ; but of course 
we had to bow to the inevitable. Please let 
the general read this. 

Faithfully your friend, 

Theo. Schwan. 

The part of our command left under Col- 
onel DeRussy set out on the morning of the 
13th to join the rest of the column, whose 
movements you have already followed in 



82 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

the preceding documents. The last detach- 
ment found It no less difficult to make head- 
way than had the first ; and on the morning 
of the 14th the entire brigade was so broken 
up and strung out that its head and tail were 
a good nine miles apart. So much trouble 
had been experienced in getting the artillery 
up the incredibly steep mountain-sides that 
no one had been able to give assistance or 
even thought to the hopelessly embarrassed 
wagon-train, and consequently we were prac- 
tically without food for over twenty-four 
hours. When at last something to eat did 
come plodding along, we were obliged to put 
up with half-rations in order that our little 
collection of recently acquired prisoners might 
be fed. At a conservative estimate, those 
prisoners must have been the hungriest lot 
of men that ever laid down their arms. 
There were less than sixty of them, and they 
drew rations for about 1,200. However, 
they were fed ; and we had the consolation 
of realizing that victory, like some other 
things of less familiar acquaintance, is its own 
reward. By noon on the 14th, everything 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 83 

was once more in order ; and I have not yet 
ceased to wonder how those in authority 
managed to erase so quickly the chaos of the 
night before. 

The engagement at Las Marias, while not 
particularly momentous in itself, was note- 
worthy as being the last between our forces 
and those of Spain during the recent war. 
I do not believe that the knowledge of this 
fact — even had we possessed it at the time 
— would have materially consoled us for the 
disappointment we felt in being obliged to 
stop shooting just when we had learned to 
do it so beautifully ; but, still, it is something 
to have been in at the finish. 



CHAPTER IX 

The Territory Won 

General Schwan returns to Mayaguex — Business and 
pleasure — A custom we abolished — Extent of the 
district captured by our brigade — Aguadilla — Facil- 
ities for transportation — Labor and the laborer — 
The cost of living — Rents and real estate — Skilled 
workmen — A word about investments, 

ON August 1 6, in obedience to orders 
from Army Headquarters, General 
Schwan left the bulk of his troops 
in the positions they had respectively occu- 
pied at the time of the receipt of the truce, 
and, accompanied by the artillery, returned to 
Mayaguez. The people of this city had not 
yet recovered from the ferment into which 
they had been thrown by our advent, and 
went about in a state of tremulous titillation, 
expecting I know not what. At any rate, it 
did not seem to arrive ; and after a day or 
two had passed without any sign of fell 

84 




A Ruined Church along our Line of March. 




A Puerto Rican Laundry. 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 85 

intent upon our part the merchants allowed 
themselves to be coaxed back into their 
places of business. The cafes were once 
more thronged. Semi-weekly concerts were 
given in the Plaza Principal by the band of 
the Eleventh Infantry and the Banda del 
Bomberos, in alternation. Balls, dinner- 
parties, and flirtations resumed their inter- 
rupted course, gathering new zest and brill- 
iancy from the foreign element within the 
gates. All the Americans began to study 
Spanish, and all the Puerto Ricans to study 
English, without particularly gratifying re- 
sults on either side. Cocking-mains, local 
games of chance, and more hectic immorali- 
ties were set forth for the delectation of the 
private soldiers ; while I have personal knowl- 
edge of at least one quasi-clandestine bull- 
fight, that may be best described as a furtive 
fizzle. 

Strict measures were taken by the brigade 
commander to prevent anything resembling 
disorderly conduct among his men, and 
though these laurel-crowned heroes, under 
the influence of a wonderfully cheap rum. 



86 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

were seized at odd moments with an evident 
desire to start the war all over again, there 
was not much difficulty encountered in main- 
taining a degree of decorum that was highly 
satisfactory. 

The sanitation of the municipality was 
rigorously inquired into, and regulated ; but 
it is only justice to the residents of Mayaguez 
to say that little reform was necessary in this 
regard, as the current statistics of mortality 
and disease amply proved. Of the few 
changes made, however, one may be specifi- 
cally mentioned. 

It was the custom whenever a peasant died 
to carry the corpse to the cemetery in a 
coffin hired at transient rates, and then, 
having dumped the deceased into a shallow 
grave, to return what is facetiously known as 
the " wooden overcoat " to its original owner, 
for further service. This was bad enough, 
considering the danger of infection thus en- 
gendered ; but much worse remains behind. 
It seems that the plot of ground reserved 
for dead paupers was very circumscribed. So 
it had become necessary to bury four or five 




Watering the Artillery Horses at Yauco. 




A Native Bull-team. 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 87 

bodies in the same hole, the last one in being 
perhaps no more than six inches from the 
light of day. And, as if this state of affairs 
were not already sufficiently horrible, we 
found that the congestion was sometimes 
still further relieved by a wholesale emptying 
of graves, the bones thus removed being 
thrown into some adjacent corner above 
ground, where they lay undisturbed in the 
hot sunshine and smelt to heaven. This 
ghastly practice was summarily stopped. 

If you will take a map of Puerto Rico 
and cut off the western section by drawing a 
line from Guanica through Lares to Camuy, 
you will see at once the extent of the terri- 
tory brought under American control by 
General Schwan. The principal towns of 
this section, in addition to those already 
described, are Aguadilla, Maricao, Anasco, 
Cabo Rojo, Lares, and Las Marias ; but 
none of these places are important enough 
to call for detailed notice, with the possible 
exception of the first-named. This city, 
Aguadilla, while it has a population of only 



88 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

5,500, is notable as being the most pictur- 
esque town on the entire island. It is the 
capital and port of the surrounding district ; 
and, though the climate is hot, it is remarka- 
bly healthful. The site is a stretch of shore 
facing Mona Channel, between Cape Borin- 
quen and the Rio Culebrinas. Directly be- 
hind rises the steep green-crested Jaicoa 
Mountain, its slopes covered with orange, 
lemon, and palm trees in bewildering pro- 
fusion ; while half-way to the summit there 
gushes forth a fairylike, crystal stream, which 
flows directly through the town before empty- 
ing into the bay. An antique church and a 
little fort of 1 1 guns, called Conception, add 
to the scenic beauty of the picture, when 
viewed from the sea. Tourists will probably 
spoil this lovely town before the end of 
another decade, but at present it is a quiver- 
ing page of romance. 

Of the facilities for transportation in this 
part of Puerto Rico, it may be said that they 
are either extremely good or extremely bad. 
The former condition prevails generally in 
the valleys, and the latter among the hills 




On the Road to Lares. 



H 


m^^ 


^1 'NfvnM? -"TiniiMnffifiw-iffir '^ lb. 


^Ipj^ 


mmwm 


j^-^^M^^^^MPwjlMB^^ 


r^ * '* -f** 


>;---^ 


g *y£^^u^Lgb li^^Pg&iS' ^Jft^i^'*. ' -wjl '^^^^^bitmi T*iC 



The Best Outfit In our Wagon Train, 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 89 

toward the interior. There are several inter- 
rupted Hnes of railroad, and burros are used 
to a considerable extent by the inland 
planters ; but far the greater part of commu- 
nication and carriage is accomplished by way 
of the sea. 

Labor here, as elsewhere in the tropics, is 
to be had very cheaply, but is uncertain, 
sluggish, and dishonest. A man for planta- 
tion work can be hired for almost nothing a 
day, but he will not earn even that unless he 
is driven at the point of a machete. The 
local peon desires to toil no longer than is 
necessary to obtain the bare wherewithal to 
fill his belly. Then he dreams away the 
remainder of the day, smoking the eternal 
cigarette ; perhaps rousing himself sufficiently 
to pick the strings of a guitar in the cool of 
the evening — and this, at least, the beggar 
does well. He is not at all ambitious to 
improve his condition, and he will never be 
any better than he is to-day. Probably he 
will be much worse. He will cut throats 
and burn haciendas all the gay year round 
if he is not allowed to gang his ain gait. We 



90 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

are going to reform him, of course; but — 
the day will come when we shall be ashamed 
to look Spain in the face. In Cuba this 
man's brothers were known as " patriots " ; 
which meant that they were soldiers when 
there was any work to be done, and laborers 
when fighting was on hand. In my opinion, 
they are vicious beasts. 

The cost of living naturally hinges upon 
the price of labor ; and so one may eat and 
drink in Puerto Rico for a trifle more than a 
song. Fruit and vegetables are cheap and 
plentiful, though flour is so costly as to be 
almost a luxury ; while the meats are neither 
low in price nor good in quality. Excellent 
fowls are to be had for very little money. 
Milk is dear and dangerous ; butter is only 
known as it appears in cans from Denmark ; 
and all the other dairy products are of the 
meanest description. Still, one can live with 
pleasure and comfort upon the many pecul- 
iarly native articles of subsistence in common 
use. 

Rents are low, but satisfactory houses are 
seldom to be had when they are wanted. 




"Promenade of the Fleas" in Yauco. 




When only One Man gets a Letter. 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 91 

There is always room in the hotels of the 
larger towns ; and, until one can build for 
himself, a hotel offers a very pleasant substi- 
tute • — at a slightly increased expense. Land, 
for building purposes, or in an unimproved 
state, can be leased for a sum that is almost 
nominal, except in a few highly favored local- 
ities. Purchasers of land are more than 
likely to find themselves immediately em- 
broiled in a lawsuit over the title. If no 
flaw exists in your title, then it does exist in 
one that was drawn up a hundred years ago ; 
and in either case the result is the same — 
you lose. 

Skilled workmen in any branch of industry 
will not find a good field for their abilities 
in Puerto Rico, at least not for a few years 
to come. If there were any demand for 
their services, — which there isn't, — they 
would not be able to command anything 
approaching the standard of wages usual in 
the United States. 

To the investor, dairy farms, ice-plants, 
transportation schemes, and bar-rooms offer 
tempting possibilities, — I reserve agriculture 



92 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

for separate consideration, — but it cannot be 
too forcibly emphasized that plenty of 
money, good-health, patience, and a smatter- 
ing of the Spanish language are absolutely 
indispensable requisites to the foreigner try- 
ing to do business on this island. 




The "Weary Travellers' Sprmg/'' near Aiia^co. 




A Crude Sugar Mill near Las Marias. 



CHAPTER X 

The End of the Campaign 

Arrival of the mail-steamer — 'The soldier-boy and 
his letters — The greater part of the brigade is 
quartered in Mayaguez — Agriculture in Puerto 
Rico — Material result of our campaign — A fare- 
well order — General Schwan departs for the United 
States, 

ON the 19th of August a steamer came 
into the harbor, bringing us a mail, 
the first we had received since the 
beginning of July. If the people who wrote 
those letters could have seen the happiness 
they wrought upon their distant boys, I am 
sure they would have been surprised and 
touched. Again and again we read the 
simple news of home, — the cat was dead, or 
little sister had the mumps, or father had 
built a new fence around the back pasture, — 
and wars and kings and presidents faded into 

93 



94 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

forgetfulness before the heart to heart talks 
that had come from over-seas. 

I don't suppose there is anybody that 
knows the value of a letter better than a 
soldier does. A few blotted lines from his 
mother or sister or sweetheart are meat and 
drink and fine raiment for his soul. He 
feels brave again and good again and — 
homesick again. He makes life a burden 
for the whole camp until he has borrowed or 
stolen a scrap of paper and a stubby pencil 
wherewith to make reply. He sits down in 
some convenient spot, with emotion fairly 
oozing from every pore, and for a solid hour 
he wrestles with his tools and vocabulary. 
The result probably does not altogether 
please him. He feels that he has said too 
much about his lack of socks, the toughness 
of his fare, the flatness of his purse. All 
the love and tenderness he meant to set 
down have somehow refused to leave him, 
even in description. But he knows he will 
be massacred if he goes howling for more 
paper ; and so he sends off what he has 
written, counting the weary days until his 




A very Popular Spot. 




Two Knights and a Pawn. 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 95 

answer comes. The man who first invented 
writing was, without doubt, the greatest man 
chat ever lived. 

On August 25 it was decided to bring all 
but four companies of the brigade into 
quarters at Mayaguez, chiefly because a great 
deal of sickness had begun to spring up in 
the outlying camps. This was accordingly 
done. 

• ••••• • 

Scientific agriculture and prosperity have 
long been regarded as almost synonymous 
terms in Puerto Rico. 

The provincial government established and 
maintained an experimental station at Rio 
Piedras, for the purpose of promoting a 
technical knowledge of the native soil-prod- 
ucts ; and the results of this step have proved 
invaluable. The recent director of the sta- 
tion, Senor Fernando Lopez Tuero, wrote, 
while in office, several monographs on tropi- 
cal agriculture ; which I have been at some 
pains to translate in my search for absolutely 
reliable information relating to that subject. 
Senor Tuero is considered, to be a high and 



^e YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS ^ 

conservative authority by those of his com- 
patriots who are best able to judge ; and I 
feel confident that the following estimates 
are nearly, if not entirely, correct : — 

The chief agricultural products of the 
island are cotton, rice, cacao, corn, cocoanuts, 
pepper, bananas, tobacco, vegetable dyes, 
coffee, sugar, pineapples, and vanilla. Of 
all these I shall only pause to deal here with 
the last four. 

Coffee and sugar are regarded by the 
Puerto Ricans as their most valuable crops. 
The first takes six years to come into full 
bearing, and during this time will cost an 
expense of about 162 pesos an acre, with a 
return in the last year of 86 pesos an acre, — 
a net deficit for the fiill period of 76 pesos. 
Afterward the expense should be about 66 
pesos an acre, and the return 90 pesos. 
Sugar requires a heavy investment at the : 
start. A plantation of 250 acres, together 
with the necessary buildings and machinery, 
will call for about 52,500 pesos. The total 
cost of a crop, from beginning to end, should 
be 152 pesos an acre, and the return about 
170. 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 97 

A pineapple plantation, for the investor 
of limited means, ought to prove profitable 
and encouraging. The first year of cultiva- 
tion will produce a crop, at a final cost of 40 
pesos an acre, including the land-rent. The 
return is put down at 200 pesos, leaving a 
gorgeous net profit of 160 pesos. It would 
seem perhaps that under such circumstances 
it is odd that there is not a more general 
raising of this fruit by the local planters ; 
but the reason for an apparent neglect of a 
golden opportunity lies in the difficulties 
heretofore encountered in finding swift and 
adequate transportation from field to market. 
With this handicap removed there is little 
doubt that pineapple-growing will become a 
tempting industry. 

The vanilla bean, however, is king-pin of 
the list in the claim of profit to be derived 
from its culture. It is said that the yearly 
cost of raising the crop will be 94 pesos an 
acre, chiefly for manure and irrigation. And 
the annual return for every acre is figured at 
652 pesos, — a net profit that is fairly daz- 
zling. 



98 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

While all these details — which I have 
digressed so many times to give — do not 
properly form a part of the story of our 
campaign, yet it is by no means unusual for 
one who has put his hand into a grab-bag to 
look carefully and well at the prize with- 
drawn. And that is what I have been 
doing. 

The material result of General Schwan's 
campaign may be briefly summarized thus : 
He marched his command ninety-two miles 
in eight days ; fought two successful engage- 
ments ; expelled the Spanish forces from the 
entire western part of Puerto Rico ; captured 
and occupied nine towns ; and took 2^^^ 
prisoners, including Colonel Villeneuve, a 
lieutenant-colonel, and four other regular 
officers. In addition he seized 450 stands 
of arms, 145,000 rounds of ammunition, 
and ten thousand dollars in silver coin. His 
loss was I killed and 16 wounded against 
a total of 20 killed and 50 wounded on 
the side of the enemy. 

On August 27 the general issued a fare- 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 99 

well order to his brigade, from which I briefly 
quote : — 

" On relinquishing his command to return 
to the United States, the brigadier-general 
commanding desires to congratulate, and to 
return his heartfelt thanks to, the officers and 
soldiers of the regular brigade for their 
achievements and excellent conduct during 
the last eighteen days. . . . Our troops have 
continued to hold their advanced positions 
and outposts until now, when, peace being 
assured, all but a small fraction have been 
brought to comparatively comfortable bar- 
racks near this city. The hardships endured 
on the march and at these outposts have 
been great. . . . But these hardships have 
been cheerfully borne by officers and men. 
Not a murmur has been heard, despite the 
fact that nearly one-fourth of the strength 
of most organizations is on sick-report, their 
ailments being directly caused by the expos- 
ure incident to this campaign. 

" Less than three weeks have been occupied 
by the campaign, yet a bond of sympathy 



loo YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

between officers' and soldiers has been estab- 
lished that years of peace could not have 
engendered/* 

On the following morning, accompanied 
by Lieutenant G. T. Summerlin, his aide-de 
camp, General Schwan left Mayaguez for 
Ponce, where he boarded the transport 
" Chester," and returned to the United 
States. 

The campaign of the Independent Regu- 
lar Brigade was thus brought to an official 
end. 



A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF BRIG- 
ADIER-GENERAL SCHWAN. 

Theodore Schwan was born in Germany, July 9, 
1 841. He received his earlier education in the prepara- 
tory schools of his native land, but came to the United 
States vv^hen he was about sixteen years old. He enlisted 
as a private in the Tenth Infantry on June 12, 1857 ; and 
served successfully as corporal, sergeant, first sergeant, and 
quartermaster-sergeant until October 31, 1863, when he 
received his commission. He was made a first lieutenant. 
Tenth Infantry, April 9, 1 864 ; regimental quartermas- 
ter in December, 1864.; a captain, March 14, 1866; a 
major. Eleventh Infantry, and assistant adjutant-general, 
July 6, 1886; a lieutenant-colonel and assistant adjutant- 
general, February 19, 1895 ; a colonel and assistant adju- 
tant-general. May 18, 1898. Two weeks before his last 
promotion in the regular army he was appointed briga- 
dier-general of volunteers, and in accordance with the 
Act of Congress, approved March 2, i 899, he will re- 
tain that rank until July I, 1901. He was brevetted 
several times during the War of the Rebellion, and his 
whole military career, covering a period of forty-two 
years, is absolutely devoid of blemish. 



10 1 



APPENDIX 



The following officers received distinguished 
mention in General Schwan's reports, for service 
rendered under fire during the campaign in western 
Puerto Rico : — 

Lieutenant-Colonel Burke, Eleventh Infantry. 

* Major Gilbreath, Eleventh Infantry. 
Captain P. M. B. Travis, Eleventh Infantry. 
Captain R. W. Hoyt, Eleventh Infantry. 
Captain A. L. Myer, Eleventh Infantry. 
Captain Penrose, Eleventh Infantry. 
Captain Macomb, Fifth Cavalry. 

Acting Assistant Surgeon Savage. 
Lieutenant Odon Gurvoits, Eleventh Infantry. 
Lieutenant T. F. Maginnis, Eleventh Infantry. 
Lieutenant Alexander, Eleventh Infantry. 
Lieutenant Wells, Eleventh Infantry. 
Lieutenant W. S. Valentine, Fifth Cavalry. 
Lieutenant Rogers F. Gardner, Third Artillery. 

In addition to those named above, special and 
valuable efficiency was displayed by Major E. A. 
Root, engineer; Major H. H. Benham, ordnance; 

* Died of apoplexy on August 22, 1898, while in camp near Las 
Marias. 

X03 



I04 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

Major Egan, brigade-surgeon ; Captain Buchanan, 
Collector-of-the-Port at Mayaguez; Captain Da- 
vison, brigade-quartermaster ; Captain Hutcheson, 
assistant adjutant-general; and Captain Elkins,* 
Lieutenant Byron, and Lieutenant Summerlin, 
aides-de-camp. 

II 

In connection with the present writer's ex- 
pressed opinion regarding the relative practical 
value of regulars and volunteers in modern war- 
fare, the following excerpt from the Chicago Rec- 
ord of November 3, 1898, is worth reading. 

Captain Avid Wester, the Swedish officer who 
accompanied the American army in Cuba, in order 
to study the war, has just returned to Sweden. 
During his stay in Gothenburg he was interviewed, 
and he seems now to have a more sympathetic 
view of the Americans — the volunteers excepted 
— than former reports indicated. Captain Wester 
greatly praised the treatment he had received from 
all the American officers, and the bravery of the 
Americans in the regular army. " Of the 18,000 
men under the command of General Shafter,'* he 
says, " only 4,000 were volunteers or militiamen ; 
the rest consisted of regulars, which had had an 
average service of six years on the borders of the 
Indian territory. They were very good and well- 

* Wounded at battle of Hormigueros. 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 105 

disciplined soldiers, who went into battle with com- 
plete disregard of death. The militia regiments, 
however, could not be got within range of the 
Spanish bullets, and all the stories about the hero- 
ism of volunteers are untrue. The only volun- 
teers who distinguished themselves were the 
* rough riders,' who, in spite of their name, fought 
on foot, but these men were not a militia regi- 
ment. The troop consisted of cowboys and ad- 
venturers, who cared neither for life nor death, 
but rushed blindly into battle. Brave fellows 
withal." After praising the bravery of the Span- 
iards and the accuracy of their fire. Captain Wes- 
ter expresses the belief that with modern rifles in 
use it is of the greatest importance to have well- 
trained soldiers, who in the heat of battle retain 
their coolness and listen to their officers* directions 
and commands, — in a word, soldiers who retain 
good firing discipline. This, he says, cannot be 
expected of men with short time of training, on 
whom the din of battle often has so paralyzing an 
effect that the soldier can neither hear nor see. 



Ill 

The question concerning the quality of the beef 
served as a ration to our troops during the recent 
war — in Cuba and Puerto Rico, and aboard the 
transports — has already been pretty thoroughly 
answered, one way or the other. Yet, though the 
topic is worn nearly threadbare and admittedly has 



io6 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

nothing in particular to do with General Schwan's 
campaign, I venture to make, m this place, a per- 
sonal contribution to the discussion in the form of 
an extract from a letter, written by me from May- 
aguez on September 15, 1898. 

Our rations [on the transport " Comanche "] 
consisted of hard tack, coffee, canned baked-beans, 
canned tomatoes, and canned " roast beef." Be- 
fore we arrived at Key West the baked-beans had 
all been eaten and the water in the tanks had gone 
rotten — we carried no condenser — so that we 
were reduced to the rather monotonous diet of 
tomatoes for breakfast, tomatoes and canned roast 
beef for dinner, and tomatoes again for supper; 
with a full allowance of coffee and hard tack at all 
three meals. 

Anybody will be able to understand that we were 
pretty hungry at the end of the second day. We 
were thirsty too — I paid as much as fifty cents 
for a glass of ice-water from the cabin — but I will 
skip the mass of details. We had seen the piles 
of neat cans, labelled " roast beef,'* stacked up on 
the dock at Port Tampa, and we were impatient 
for the first mess-call that made us acquainted with 
the contents of those cans. I regret that I cannot 
adequately describe to you the appearance of the 
stuff. I will simply say that it looked filthy, was 
covered with a sort of slime, and emitted a 
nauseous odor. It was very hard to even gaze at 
it and remain unmoved, but we did more than that 
— we tried to eat it. - I managed to swallow three 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 107 

mouthfuls and immediately became wretchedly sick. 
The example seemed to be popular. 

On the succeeding day we were each given an 
unopened can of the meat, which was supposed to 
last us for twenty-four hours. Most of the men 
threw their portions overboard at once ; a few 
packed away the " corpse " — as we already called 
it — for purposes of trade with the unsophisticated 
Cubans ; and I kept my can as a souvenir. I did 
not, however, keep it long ; for, chancing to drop 
it upon the deck, the contents exploded with a dis- 
tinct report, startling me not a little and covering 
my person with the debris. At the time I thought 
this experience was going to be altogether unique, 
but I discovered afterward that the same thing hap- 
pened in a great many other instances. 

Having abandoned the beef, we were forced to 
subsist on hard tack and tomatoes for the rest of 
the voyage, and hailed with joy our anchorage at 
Daiquiri. But we were too previous. During 
our ten days* stay in Cuba we found the " corpse " 
still waiting for us in the mess, and we carried the 
ghastly burden along when we finally steamed 
away for Puerto Rico. 

We landed at Guanica on the 25th of July, 
which meant that we had been half-starved for 
twenty-two days. We had forgotten the " Maine " 
and would have greeted Weyler himself with a 
glad sweet smile, had he come bearing in his 
hands food fit for a human being. Once more 
disembarked, we lost sight of the canned roast 
beef for good — save at extremely rare intervals 



io8 YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 

while on the march. We found no difficulty in 
eating the beef obtained from Puerto Rican steers, 
although it was tough and bloodless ; and we re- 
ceived salt pork often enough to furnish variety. 

After the cessation of hostilities we began to 
get American beef instead of the native article, 
and, while it was by no means so impossible a 
food as its canned cousin, it certainly could not be 
called delicious. It smelled badly before it was 
cooked, was rigid and stringy when served, and 
had a rank taste, like — well like nothing else on 
earth. Our sick-list doubled at this time. 



IV 

A LIST of the killed and wounded on the 
American side, at the battle near Hormigueros, 
Puerto Rico, on the loth of August, 1898. 

Killed, 

Fred Fenneberg, private in Company " D," 
Eleventh Infantry. 

IVounded, 

Lieutenant J. C. Byron, Eighth United States 
Cavalry, R. D. C. 

John Bruning, corporal in Light Battery " D," 
Fifth Artillery. 

George Curtis, private in Light Battery " D," 
Fifth Artilleiy. 



YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS 109 

Samuel G. Frye, private in Light Battery " D," 
Fifth Artillery. 

Willard H. Wheeler, sergeant in Company 
" A," Eleventh Infantry. 

Joseph P. Ryan, corporal in Company "A," 
Eleventh Infantry. 

Arthur Sparks, private in Company " C," Elev- 
enth Infantry. 

John L. Johnson, corporal in Company " D," 
Eleventh Infantry. 

J, A. Sanders, private in Company " D," Elev- 
enth Infantry. 

Harry E. Arrick, private in Company " E," 
Eleventh Infantry. 

Henry Gerrick, private in Company " E," 
Eleventh Infantry. 

Paul F. Mitzkie, private in Company " E," 
Eleventh Infantry. 

William Rossiter, private in Company " G," 
Eleventh Infantry. 

Lemuel P. Cobb, private in Company " I," 
Eleventh Infantry. 

D. J. Graves, private in Company " M,'' 
Eleventh Infantry. 

Amos Wilkie, corporal in Company " M," 
Eleventh Infantry. 

Injured. 

Frank Muller, private in Company " E," Elev- 
enth Infantry. 

Augustus H. Ryan, private in Company " PV' 
Eleventh Infantry. 



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